1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bathing devices and, more particularly, pertains to assisting a wheelchair user and an elderly, infirm person to bathe oneself completely, safety and in a comfortable position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of bathtub inserts are known in the art. A number of these devices in different fulfillment intend that persons safely set into and out of a conventional tub. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,577 to Worthy discloses a bathtub mountable chair seat for the transfer of a physically challenged bather from the exterior of a typical bathtub to the interior of the bathtub for bathing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,545 to Forwick discloses a telescoping chair lift device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,751 to Baker discloses apparatus in which the bather is seated in the chair from outside the bathtub, then the chair is rotated and slid laterally until the person is positioned inside the bathtub for bathing or showering. While all of these devices fulfill their respective, particular objective and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose an apparatus permitting disabled and infirm persons to bathe himself/herself completely (including back, bottom, and feet) without an assistant.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,040,335 to Gelman and U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,445 to Bailly shown a shower chair assembly whereby the sprays, directed from under the seat, can cleans the ano-genital areas of the body. However, the users of both of these devices can't completely bathe themselves without assistance from another person. Furthermore these suggested devices are too complicated and unacceptable for the present purposes due both to the relatively high initial cost, and also to the loss or restriction of the facility for normal use when anyone wishes a regular shower or bath.
In U.S. application Ser. No. 10/642,537 filed Aug. 18, 2003, I presented an apparatus for safely, comfortably and completely bathing oneself. For bathing the user must come into the bathtub, seat on the chair and washes all parts of the body by using bathing tools of the apparatus. But people who use for transportation a wheelchair can't oneself come inside of the bathtub. Also can't come inside of the bathtub and some elderly, infirm people. These disadvantages are overcome by the present invention in the matter of use the Bathing tools (which are disclosed in my application U.S. Ser. No. 10/642,537 filed Aug. 18, 2003) and additional a new matter wherein:
A. For users of Wheelchair, the chair seat can transfer the bather from exterior of the bathtub to its interior;
B. For elderly, infirm people the chair seat is fixed in position over the longitudinal lip of the bathtub to let the user sit down on this chair as well as he would on a standard chair or toilet. The user's back in this case will be in area of the bathtub, while the feet will be out, and the water, which comes out, will be gathered by curtain into folding tray and pumped back in said bathtub.